EGYPTIAN President Mohamed Morsi's invitation to opposition groups to sit down and discuss how to resolve the current political impasse in the country has not stopped the ongoing protests swirling around his palace and his presidency. Ever since Nov. 22 when Morsi issued a set of decrees, one of which gives him broad powers, Egypt has become a country split down the middle between Islamists of which Morsi is a member, and the opposition. His announcement that the recently finished constitution would be put to a referendum later this month after it was adopted by mainly Islamists broke the Egyptian camel's back. As is expected in such a divide, anger has spilt onto the streets after the two sides clashed Wednesday in heavy battles outside the presidential palace leaving six dead and more than 700 injured. In the almost two years since its revolution, Egypt has seen such violence, but this incident was the worst since Morsi became president more than five months ago. The opposition sees Morsi rescinding his decrees as the only way out, but Morsi has given no sign he is ready to make such a concession. He says the referendum on the disputed charter will go ahead as scheduled on Dec. 15 and has refused to rescind the Nov. 22 decrees. The referendum should go ahead as planned. The constitution might indeed be flawed and too one-sided after a third of the 100 deputies — all non-Islamists — who were drafting it walked out to protest their inability to get a word in edgewise against the Islamist majority. But the reality, no matter how difficult for some to come to terms with, is that Islamists were voted in as the majority in the parliament which selected the members of the group which drafted the constitution. To pretend that that did not happen or to try to create another situation by force as a replacement would go against the principles of last year's revolt which erupted so that, among many other things, everyone is seen to be abiding by the law. But last year's revolution also broke out so that no one person would have absolute authority, and Morsi's decision to give himself powers beyond any president's normal reach — above judicial oversight — set the alarm bells ringing. He called the move temporary until the constitution is passed and said that a constitution could not be passed in the midst of incessant inside bickering and constant court cases which threatened to dissolve the constituent assembly drawing up the constitution. Morsi gave himself the power to have the constitution finished and put to a vote, but he seems not to have anticipated that just the mere mention of something that smacks of all-encompassing power would hit a raw nerve in a people who just last year overthrew their government charged with wielding the same unchecked power. Morsi probably banked on the fact that the liberal opposition would not make much of a challenge, but the past week has shown they are much more than the 5,000 he said were defying him. Morsi has the legitimacy of the ballot box but must also understand the valid concerns his extra authority has raised, even by those who voted for him.
